My children and I stood in line for hours at one of the County Clinics this morning, only to be turned away once the measly 1,200 doses offered were allocated. There are 1.7 MILLION people in this county, and the amount of vaccine that is available and being distributed is grossly insufficient. If they want to target certain populations like children, the shots should be distributed through schools and day care centers in an orderly fashion. Doses for pregnant women should be offered from their OBGYN offices. Simply telling concerned residents, "We're sorry, try the next clinic." is ludicrous. Other states are managing to distribute vaccine successfully and appropriately. This is no less than a public health disaster. Oh, and good luck trying to find the regular seasonal flu vaccine, as well. I was able to get only one of my children vaccinated - at Target.

Get an influenza vaccine and you may learn how to pronounce Guillain–Barré syndrome. Yesterday I met a person who was suffering from influenza vaccine induceed Guillain–Barré syndrome and was told by that victim that one in fifty novel H1N1 vaccines are causing Guillain–Barré syndrome. Many others suffer headaches, fever and body aches.

I don't want to get vaccinated at the fairgrounds! Chances are I will probably get more exposure to germs standing in the long line waiting for the shot. Why is this vaccine being rolled out in such an unorthodox manner? The seasonal flu shot was always easy to get at your family physician office or at a local pharmacy. Why the strange distribution of the H1N1? I am not sure about the Guillain-Barre connection though it is scaring a lot of people in Europe where I am told there is an H1N1 vaccine surplus due to low demand. Seems as fuzzy as the autism connection with the childhood vaccines. Who is in charge of distributing this vaccine? The drug maker? Are they trying to hype it by creating an over-demand for a scarce product? I am perplexed by it.

I wouldn't be surprisd to see that the swing congressional districts are getting the most vaccine. And of course they know that if 1/2 the people in Santa Clara country died from H1N1 they would still vote 100% Democratic.

It is great that they are offering these clinics, but as a pregnant woman in the third trimester, there is no way that I can go stand in line for hours to get the vaccine. I wish they could come up with a better system. I cannot think of one.

Guillain, where do you get that 1/50 figure? I would love to read more about it.